WHY? WHY? WHY?

[guest]

Why do expediters drive 200 miles to pickup a load and accept payment for only 130? Why do they then drive 600 miles to delivery and accept payment for only 560? This is pure insanity! It takes a real nut to drive 800 miles and receive payment for only 690!!!!! Simple math tells anyone that at a dollar a mile this expediter is losing $110.00 for his/her efforts and yet they'll do it over and over again and again. To keep doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result, but getting the same, is the classical definition of craziness. IF one has an apartment for lease does the person looking to lease the apartment get to set the terms of the lease? Why then does a person who has a truck for lease allow the person(carrier)looking to lease the truck set the terms of the lease? Who, afterall, owns the truck? Or am I the a crazy nut who just doesn't understand the trucking industry--set me straight,PLEASE!

 

[RichM]

Interestering comments.What I look for and calculate is the pay per mile for the trip,including deadhead to the pick up and deadhead to (what i think) will be the layover location after deliverey.I also usually have a rough idea of the tolls that will be necessary to run the trip and I deduct that from the revenue quoted,then divide by total miles to see if it is worth while. In many instances it!s not,Fedex CC has a discount operation called TPS or third party services. The rates that this division pays are a absolute insult. Example: last year we were put out of service in Richmond VA for refusing 2 trips from Norfolk VA to Michigan. The D unit pay before deahead and tolls was .91 per mile,after deadhead to Norfolk plus the PA and Ohio turnpike chages we were down in the .72 per mile. I simply will not run for that amount.I can do other things for a living if need be. If everyone would refuse this type of run,perhaps things would get better..

 

[Olko]

WHY? WHY? WHY?

Truck Payment, House Payment, Insurance Payment, you get the picture. They figure any run, is better than no run, or just don't know how to figure how much that run is going to cost them. Number one thing is to know how much it costs you to run that truck (it is a lot more than just the truck payment, fuel and insurance). I believe the companies like to have a lot of newbies sitting around because they don't know that the run they are being offered to Seattle WA, which seems real good up front might leave them deadheading all the way back to the expediting lanes. Just like the runs that RichM mentioned, he knew how to figure it out, but would a newbie, probably not, and that newbie might fall for the line about going to a better area.

Bottom line as I see it, is, there are to many trucks out here with people in them that are living from check to check, that feel they must put up with the cheap freight that the Robert's/Fedex, and Tri-State's are offering.

I try not to move our truck for less than .50cpm to me, after expenses. My rational for this is as follows; I can go out and run team for .40 cpm, or more, plus have all the benefits of health/life/dental/vision insurance, matching FICA, workers comp, unemployment insurance, retirement plan with company match, and I wouldn't have to worry about whether fuel was going to cost $2.00 or whether it will be $2.50 this winter, also I have no worries about the truck breaking down and me being out of service for weeks while some incompetent mechanic at Freightliner tries to figure out how to replace a headlight. OK, writing this post has convinced me...Anyone want to buy a Truck.